Nine Central University of Jammu Faculty Make the Stanford–Elsevier Top 2% List: What the Ranking Does and Doesn't Mean

Nine faculty members of the Central University of Jammu (CUJ) have been named among the world's top 2% of scientists, according to a Greater Kashmir report published on 12 October. The ranking is the Stanford–Elsevier global database, which orders researchers by citation impact across fields and sub-fields.

Who is on it

• Prof Deepak Pathania, Environmental Sciences: polymer nanocomposites, adsorption, photocatalysis, removing contaminants from water.
• Prof Richa Kothari, Environmental Sciences: bioenergy, low-cost wastewater treatment, solar-based treatment.
• Prof Vinay Kumar, Physics and Astronomical Sciences: nanophosphors and nanomaterials for sensing and photovoltaics.
• Prof Uday Pratap Singh, Mathematics: nonlinear dynamical systems, soft computing, image processing.
• Prof Rakesh Kumar Jha, Electronics and Communication Engineering: 5G/6G, wireless networks, IoT, network security.
• Prof Pawan Kumar, Chemistry: nanomaterials, photocatalysis, analytical and materials chemistry.
• Dr Pardeep Kumar Singh, Computer Science and Engineering: IoT, wireless sensor networks, information security.
• Dr Sachin Kumar Gupta, Electronics and Communication Engineering: UAV communication, wireless networking, IoT, network security.
• Dr K Kuppusamy, named in the report without a department.

What the ranking measures

It is a citation-based list: it reflects how often a researcher's published work is cited by others, not teaching quality or a university's overall standing. That makes it useful as one signal of research activity, and a poor guide on its own to whether a department suits you.

How a student can use this

If you are choosing a postgraduate or PhD route, read the faculty's recent papers, see which topics (water treatment, nanomaterials, wireless and IoT security, soft computing) overlap with what you want to study, and check the department's own pages for openings. The university credited Vice-Chancellor Prof Sanjeev Jain's guidance and support for research in the announcement.

Photo: file photo of Jammu city; the report's own image was a graphic and was not used.

Source: Greater Kashmir, 9 CUJ faculty members named among world's top 2% scientists (12 October 2026).